Farewell, Aime

France bids farewell to black pride poet Aime Cesaire
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdi7O0Jn6D2vpWgvG9-UkG_OYmlg

Hanes "Tag" Ads Controversy

A controversial ad campaign by Hanes (developed for South Asia) featuring the words "faggot" and "nigger" and "paki" has drawn a lot of attention, criticism, and little actual theorization and critique. Much of the response has been purely "this is bad, bad, bad because using labels is bad, bad, bad because in this diverse, multicultural world we don't do things that are bad, bad, bad..." The campaign features the tagline "The world gives you enough tags." And the images are about the anthropomorphication of the discourse, stereotypes, and signifiers of the very labels themselves.



I think there is something going on here that might actually be disidentificatory, a way that unsettles the words (not completely) from their usage and that revivifies our relationship to them that might actually pull them out of the safe distance of history.



Granted these stereotypes are problematic and, well, stereotypical. But is there a way to not have a knee-jerk neoliberal reaction? And to find something productive out of the discomfort and eerieness produced by the ads? There is something posthuman going on here, too.

I'll have to think about it. Here's details: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/controv-campaigns-hanes.

European Journal of Cultural Studies (May 2008) on Video Game Studies

European Journal of Cultural Studies
1 May 2008; Vol. 11, No. 2
URL: http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/vol11/issue2/?etoc


What is game studies anyway?
David B. Nieborg and Joke Hermes
European Journal of Cultural Studies 2008;11 131-147
http://ecs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/131?etoc

Ruling the virtual world: Governance in massively multiplayer online games
Sal Humphreys
European Journal of Cultural Studies 2008;11 149-171
http://ecs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/149?etoc

The mod industries? The industrial logic of non-market game production
David B. Nieborg and Shenja van der Graaf
European Journal of Cultural Studies 2008;11 177-195
http://ecs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/177?etoc

Digital Arabs: Representation in video games
Vit Sisler
European Journal of Cultural Studies 2008;11 203-220
http://ecs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/203?etoc

Do you believe in magic? Computer games in everyday life
Daniel Pargman and Peter Jakobsson
European Journal of Cultural Studies 2008;11 225-244
http://ecs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/225?etoc

Open invitation: mapping global game cultures. Issues for a sociocultural
study of games and players
Frans Mayra
European Journal of Cultural Studies 2008;11 249-257
http://ecs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/249?etoc